Iben Mondrup: Us and Them from the other side of a tense relationship

Iben Mondrup (1969) is a Danish writer who grew up in Greenland, whose landscape, family themes, and cultural tensions strongly shape her work. After studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, she turned to literature and has published eight novels since 2009. Her first two experimental books focus on visual art. She achieved a breakthrough with Godhavn (Good Harbour, 2014), which received the DR Roman Prize in 2015. In this autobiographical novel, she explores a beautiful as well as complex childhood in a family of Danish teachers in the northern town of Qeqertarsuaq (Godhavn in Danish) on Disko Island. This was followed by successful novels about family conflicts and memory, including Karensminde (Karen’s Place, 2017, Blixen Prize). Her trilogy Tabita, Vittu and Bjørn, which deals with the lives of adopted Greenlandic children, also received significant acclaim. Mondrup lives in Copenhagen and has two children.